meme ganked from senmut

[lotesse]

Pick a character and I will give and explain the top five ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them. Any and all characters welcome (including ones I haven't written but might know about...)

list of my active fandoms at the AO3

Comments

[executrix]

Narnia--Susan!

[lotesse]

1. Susan is practical, because she thinks nobody else will be. Which is not entirely true - but in fairness to her, her siblings have been leaving practical things to her for a long time.

2. Susan had sex in Narnia - kind of a lot of sex, actually. She knows what she likes, and she's kinda hella good in bed. Going back to English adolescents left her very sexually frustrated.

3. It's not that Susan doesn't like Lucy, it's just that sometimes she thinks Lucy comes from another planet.

4. Susan was "the Gentle" for very nearly the same reason Ed was "the Just": because she's actually fairly judgmental and harsh, and she fights against those tendencies in herself.

5. Being sent away from Narnia broke Susan's heart. She didn't get what she needed there - Narnia validated her beauty, but the world around her has always done that. She feels abandoned, and like it's her fault. She was angry when she heard that Lu and Ed got to go back again, and she didn't. She doesn't feel very much older than Lucy - but apparently Aslan doesn't care how she feels, just how she looks.

[copracat]

Oh, <3, as in breaking mine.

[esteven]

Jack Aubrey or Stephen Maturin. :D

[lotesse]

1. Jack Aubrey loves his job. Like, more than loves his job. It is his bliss. He might grouse a bit, but before he went away to sea he was never so happy as he's learned to be.

2. This is canon, but more essential to me than I think it is to many - Jack's a better violinist than Stephen is a cellist. He plays with grace and passion and artistry, and you wouldn't think he would, being Jack, but somehow his violin lets him access depths of himself that he can't with words or deeds.

3. Before Stephen, he was beginning to become lonely, and to feel the isolation of command. He rarely feels that now - except when Stephen goes against him and they have to have a row.

4. Jack alternates between having a hard time believing in Stephen's spywork, and then after Port Mahon being intensely impressed by it. Even though he does occasionally forget that the bloke he has toasted cheese with is also a total badass.

5. He had sex with Lord Nelson the night he was asked by him to pass the salt, and that's why the anecdote sticks so firmly in his mind.

[(Anonymous)]

*g* at 5.

Anyway, you have pointed to a number of Jack's traits that tended to be forgotten by others.

2 is easily my favourite because Jack, who is so often lost for or at least clumsy with words, speaks so eloquently with his fiddle/violin. Stephen knows that nearly every time he hears Jack play, and even replies to the emotions he hears. Still, it took him so many books to realize just what a wonderful violinist Jack is!

[senmut]

Mordred.

[lotesse]

(This is TH White's Mordred, because I love him best.)

1. AS the youngest of five boys, Mordred learned young that if you can't beat them with your fists you have to have other weapons. Telling their mother worked sometimes, but she only sometimes cared enough to listen. He was thirteen when he stumbled on the technique of blackmail.

2. Mordred loves his brother Gareth the best - Gareth was kind to him when they were children - and when Gareth leaves the Orkney faction to join the Table Mordred can't figure out if he's more miserable or more angry. He decides to be angry, because it feels less awful.

3. Mordred looks nothing like his father. He wishes that he did. It would make having a father more real, more believable.

4. Mordred prefers having sex with men. Women are all right, as long as he doesn't have to be on top. He doesn't like being on top - it's expansive and strangely frightening.

5. Guinever reminds Mordred of his mother.

[senmut]

That works so well for me!

[ilthit]

Charles Gunn.

[lotesse]

(strictly seasons 1-3, because I stopped watching once Cordy got gone.)

1. Gunn's not really a joiner. He likes deeds more than causes. So he'll ride around with Angel's crew, but he's not going to hang the moon by the guy.

2. After Alonna died, Gunn stopped wanting to fall in love for a while. Just couldn't open up that much while everything hurt so much.

3. Angel's a hoopy frood and all, but Gunn doesn't need reminders as to what he is. He hasn't met Angelus, the way Cordelia has, but after you've killed the demon wearing your little sister's corpse you tend to remember to hate the monsters that did it.

4. Gunn really likes Anne. Really likes. He spends a lot more time with her than we see onscreen.

5. Wes cracks Gunn up. He's adorable, and he wears everything on the surface. He's Gunn's complete opposite, and Gunn doesn't even really understand why he finds that so funny and cute and awesome. It's like having an evil twin, except that he gets to be the badass one.